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Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Executive governors of states in the Federal Republic
of Nigeria appear to have untrammelled fiat almost equivalent to absolute
monarchies of old within their fiefdoms.

I do not intend to cover that particular
matter but they are also granted immunity from prosecution which has the somewhat
unintended consequence of many acting with impunity as they project the
personification of absolute power that corrupts absolutely.

Thankfully, they only have that megalomania for the
tenure of their offices before they become ordinary citizens again. Usually, to
forestall a wholesale jettisoning of the things they put in place they would most
likely attempt to interfere with the succession process with the hope of
putting in a stooge that will for gratitude or other allegiances be their
marionettes in power.

Deficiencies
in governance

One thing is evident with our system of democracy,
there are no strong institutions that make for ensuring that the governor acts
within the sometimes grey areas of the law, the state legislatures tend to be
overly partisan and factional rather than work as a moderating chamber more representative
of the people and the powers the governor exerts are sometimes unreasonable
that they will almost always be reviewed and the acts rescinded.

In many states where the new governors have been
elected especially where the successor has come from another party or there
have been differences within the same party that the erstwhile governor has not
been able to influence the succession process the states have been in radical
flux.

Basically, it is like the new governor is on a crusade
to expunged every act and idea of their predecessor which all fall within the
spectrum of atrocious through commendable to excellent, you rarely find areas
where these governors attempt to build on the previous successes and take the
state forward.

Consequences
of the lack of continuity

Obviously, each governor has their own agenda and
manifesto; it is their prerogative to act and hopefully in the best interests
of fairness, justice, of the people and of the state rather that follow through
their personal animosities in a show of sheer pettiness masquerading as
leadership.

However, other things suffer if the system is not
built to manage the acts of the executive governors at their most powerful and guarantee
continuity after they have left. In fact, it feeds a vicious circle of
counter-productive measures that give a lie to our democratic experiment.

On the matters of contracts, land ownership, business confidence,
long-term enabling environments for development and growth the looming
uncertainties that are generated by the musical chairs of quadrennial elections
mean many projects not completed within the tenure might get abandoned and
other thriving initiatives might be jettisoned.

Examples of
breakdown

Worse still will be actions the old governor took for
their own benefit when the new broom puts the old person in their place as is
now happening in Ogun State - the once promising potentate at the advent of
office who by the end of his term was probably the worst thing that ever
happened to Ogun State who for his power-drunk egregious and megalomaniacal excesses
plundered the state and appropriated lands that are now subjects of dispute.

If the new governors do not do well to spell out their
intentions, many might read their actions as an all-out vendetta especially
when one read the placards of student protesters whose university was
downgraded to an institute of education amongst other things happening there
and all around the country.

Constitutional
review

There is a need to review the powers the executive
governors had and what they can do, the state legislatures need to rise to the
challenge of being better moderating influences on the governors whilst
ensuring that the ideas and projects put in place have every prospect of
continuity no matter who sits in the governor’s house.

Our constitution after almost 13 years of use is in
need of radical amendments and subtle refinement to make our democracy more
representative whilst also making leadership more responsive and accountable to
the electorate.

Most importantly, there is a need to redress the
matter of public service with more emphasis on the service over just having a
public – these changes must happen soon, if we are to have a more enduring
union and the hope that the best minds do vie for office and bring forth the
change that Nigeria so badly needs.

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I have many stories to tell, I am English of Nigerian parentage, I lived in the Netherlands for 12 years, returned to the UK recently but still have wander lust - the rest is somewhere online, most likely in on blogs.